A DAY OF FAITH...

...organised by the FAITH Movement and held at St Patrick's, Soho Square. Superb speakers: Canon Luiz Ruscillo, Bishop Phillip Egan, and George Weigel.  The whole day was full of inspiration and encouragement on the theme of the New Evangelisation. Weigel is an excellent speaker, by turns amusing, interesting, and challenging - and he gave us a fine sweep of Church history, putting the Second Vatican Council in its full perspective  and offering a practical vision for the way ahead, centred on a Catholicism which is  rooted in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Bishop Philip gave us a most inspiring address, emphasising prayer at the core of the New Evangelisation. And Fr Luiz opened the day with a sparkling look at the Church today, the sober realities, and the great possibilities for the future. All this plus a beautiful Mass, a time of Adoration, Benediction, opportunities for confession...and St Patrick's is in a corner of London with lots of history, so we had a short History Walk too...

Rather solemn talk...

...over a pub lunch after Mass...the future of Britain, and Islam. Conversions to Islam. In my experience of talking to young girls who convert, obviously the immediate cause is an Islamic boyfriend. Usually the girl is a formal but lapsed Catholic. She has been given just sufficient religion (eg in a nominally Catholic school) to give her a vague idea of God and an interest in the things of God,  but insufficient to enable her to have a personal relationship with Christ, let alone any desire for the sacraments. So the idea of praying five times a day and adopting a dress code, and all that, seems v. romantic and exciting, especially if it causes dismay at home...

We need to pray about this, and our own commitment to Christ and the Church is at the core of what the future holds. We are called to be missionaries, to be witnesses, to evangelise...

Do read...

this story. Click on the picture, and the tale will unfold - use the symbol on the left to turn the pages. I had vaguely heard of this story, but didn't know any details...

A good report...

...of Thursday evening's Ordinariate event with Charles Moore can be found here...

Been reading...

...a booklet giving the text of a lecture by Rt Rev Graham Leonard, former Anglican Bishop of London, telling of his spiritual journey.  He served for 45 years  - with great distinction, although he does not mention that - as an Anglican,  and following the events of 1992 and the C of E Synod's vote to create women priests, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church and was ordained. His account is touching and interesting in lots of ways...but it's huge relevance for today lies in the fact that the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was forged out of the discussions that he and others held back in the early 1990s with Cardinal Basil Hume and others.  The Cardinal had asked them what elements of their  Anglican heritage they could bring.. this was also discussed with .Cardinal Ratzinger in Rome... and the result, some two decades later, was Anglicanorum Coetibus.   And now we have the Ordinariate...

We haven't yet begun to examine fully...

...the ghastly things that are going to happen over the next years, as the reality of  the destruction of marriage finds its way, into the everyday reality of  a muddled and collapsing society. Already, we are all too uncomfortably aware of the miserable attempts by fatherless boys to find some relief and identity in brutality and gang-culture. We are conscious of the social chaos of children who lack identity, a family structure, a knowledge of who they are, commitment. We know, with a growing sense of horror, that it is going to be extremely difficult to care for people as they get old and frail, with family structures disintegrating.

Read this - be warned that you need a strong stomach - on the frightening things that are happening in the world of  "sperm selling".   Read here  to find out more about the reality of  the plight of the fatherless.

Trendy clichés and gooey fashionable attitudes have masked a descent into a dreadful and cruel situation.  Over the next years, Christian charity will be a beacon of hope - living it, sharing it, teaching it, will require courage and generosity. Ready?

From EWTN in Alabama...

...to London Bridge.  Raymond Arroyo, presenter at EWTN, will be speaking at Precious Blood Church, London Bridge, this coming week, June 20th, 6.30pm.Everyone is welcome. Light refreshments.   More info here...

Goodwill...

...as Pope Francis met Dr Justin Welby in Rome today.  We can rejoice that animosities from 4 centuries ago have given way to friendship and neighbourliness...it is possible, and crucial, to affirm truth with kindness and courtesy. The whole mood was one of great goodwill  and mutual respect.  Worth reading media reports of this meeting.  Note in particular the Vatican News Service report...

Pope Francis spoke  beautifully about the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, giving clear support: just the right message

Yesterday evening,  there was a beautiful Ordinariate Evensong held at Brompton Oratory...the first time that Evensong in the Anglican rite has been sung there.  Afterwards, a reception was held and writer Charles Moore spoke: he mentioned the forthcoming meeting between Pope Francis and Dr Welby...I think it is a nice piece of Providence that the two events came together like this, as it hadn't been planned...

There are pitfalls and huge possibilities for awkwardness ahead, but we need to be courteous and friendly, and cherish all possible goodwill.

I am not impressed by attempts to suggest that  official encounters emphasising goodwill and  politeness between Anglicans and Catholics are wrong or silly. On the contrary, in this often ugly world, it's simply heartening to see some decent friendship. Let's keep on...

More on Auntie Joanna's summer plans...

here...

On June 23rd...

...the Martyrs' Walk takes place in London. This is in a long tradition, following the route to Tyburn and honouring the memory of the English Martyrs. Come and pray for our poor country. Meet 1.30pm at St Sepulchre's church, near the Old Bailey. Nearest tube: St Paul's.  We will walk right through London, stopping to pray at the Church of SS Anselm and Cecilia in Holborn, at St Giles-in-the-Fields (Anglican - where we are always made most welcome) and St Patrick's, Soho. Things finish with Benediction and then Tea at Tyburn. 

SUNDAY JUNE 23rd...be there...our country needs your prayers.

Words, words, words....

...surrounded by them, writing, reading them...

Three sets of proofs to correct (new books coming out in August). Lecture tour coming up in Australia. And I'm speaking at the EWTN Family Festival in Alabama (August 17th-18th) so there will be a lot of travelling this summer...

Meanwhile, some academic work, a Long Essay due by the end of June.

A vocation to the Carmelites...

...is a precious thing. And here is one that needs some help.

At the weekend, while at Maryvale, I met a lady who has been accepted as a postulant in the Carmelites, and all was going well...but she has a problem. She owns a small house on the outskirts of Birmingham and has been unable to sell it.  She is not allowed, under Church law, to enter a religious order until she has sorted out obligations of this sort. The house is a modest one, and she needs to sell it in order to pay off the mortgage and be free to follow her call.

Can you help? The convent has released her until the sale goes through. She is working as a supply teacher...and is desperate for help in getting this small house sold!  Any offers of help/advice would be appreciated. Send a COMMENT to this Blog marking it "Not for publication" and INCLUDING IN IT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS so that I can contact you.

London...London...

...I took a group of school pupils from a big London comprehensive school round Westminster Cathedral today. They were delightful, well behaved and friendly, and looked nice in their blue blazers. They don't know much history, but get eager and interested once you start to explain it...the key is to get them to answer up and repeat things. "Christ was born in...?" and they are too shy to answer so you repeat the statement and then one shyly mumbles "Jerusalem?" and you say "Not quite..." and you tell them "Bethlehem" and there's a vague murmur of "Oh, yeah...of course" and so you  then start again "Christ was born in...?" and you get a chorus of the right answer...and so it goes on. They knew the name of the first Pope - a big chorus of "Peter" and they eagerly searched for the name of Pope Benedict on the big plaque listing all of them...and they knew about him and about Pope John Paul, and of course about Pope Francis...They didn't know about Pope Gregory and St Augustine and "Non angli sed angeli"  but they liked the story and were able to repeat it back to me in due course. Odd gaps in children's knowledge, though...when I talked about St Paul one of them asked what a shipwreck was.

The main interest arose as we stood at the foot of the nave and I commented that it would be a superb aisle to walk up as a bride...one commented thoughtfully that you'd need a long hymn because the walk would be a long one, another asked how much a wedding like that might cost...(I noted that the cathedral would be free, but it would right to make a donation...and then afterwards, giving champagne and cake to all those people would cost a bit...best to start talking to her dad about it now, so as to get saving...)

And then, after a quick coffee-and-emails break in a nearby café, a change of mood.  I hurried to London Bridge. Here, a couple of us had agreed to meet at Precious Blood Church to do a Rosary Walk. We were doing it all last summer, a little group of women quietly walking around the parish, praying the Rosary. This evening, a Rosary in thanksgiving for many blessings received...

There is so much history in The Borough, along this little bit of the Thames. Borough High Street and Redcross Way... the little garden established by Octavia Hill with its rush-pond and little bridge... Guy's Hospital chapel and a lady came in to pray, and asked if we had any matches as she wanted to light a candle...

We are having a Parish History Walk on July 8th as part of the Patronal Festival. Watch this blog for more on that...

...and don't forget...

...the DAY OF FAITH, with Bishop Philip Egan and author George Weigel among the speakers. June 18th at St Patrick's, Soho Square. There is still time to book your ticket, but HURRY...info here...